


Shimmer

by othisredding



Category: GOT7
Genre: M/M, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-07 11:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8799157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/othisredding/pseuds/othisredding
Summary: The one good thing about spending the summer at his uncle's is Jinyoung will be guaranteed time alone away from his problems...or so he thinks, until he meets Mark.for the prompt: "summer love au where mark and jinyoung meet in an ice cream parlour by the beach and spend the summer together, going to bbq's and parties with their friends, swimming in the sea and falling in love"





	1. That Faint Murmur

**Author's Note:**

> Hi hi! So I'm writing markjin now? I planned to have this whole thing written and posted in full but because of life transitions and such that didn't happen, but hopefully I can update fairly frequently still and make this the best fic it can be :) And hopefully what I have in mind won't stray toooooooo far away from abby's lovely original prompt.
> 
> And FYI, each chapter title will be in reference to the playlist JB gave Jinyoung which I'll make available for y'all soon.

 

_Jaebummie -_

_You told me to write but you didn't believe i really would, did you? Well I am writing. Thank you for the playlist you sent, I've been listening to it slowly and trying to give each song time enough to settle with me. Right now, I am contemplating "The Chimera." You said I probably wouldn't like it but I find it interesting. Even though it is upbeat, it is steady in a way too, don't you think? Determined. "When your love needs its danger please let me through when I've got you--" what do you think that means?_

_I'm sure you think I'm wasting away the sunny days here dwelling on words, but can't I do both? I'm dwelling on words in the sun. Don't make that face, I already know the face you're making. Just be proud of me for not locking myself away from the world. I've been enjoying the sun. I'm out on the beach now. Baby steps, right?_

_I hope things are good with Grover. The last picture you sent makes my heart hurt in a good way. In some ways I still can't believe you are a father but in some ways it seems so natural. Is it the same for you? I'll write you more later. Take care and make sure to make time to rest._

_Love,_

_Jinyoung._

  
  


Jinyoung leaves his notebook open on his lap for a moment, dwelling on Jaebum. Not thinking anything in particular, not quite missing him in this moment, but just letting his presence take up space in his mind for an extra moment. The beach has thinned out, less teenagers out at this time of the day and mostly couples and older people taking walks or reading. He'll be 23 in a few days and he feels that he fits in a lot more with this crowd than the rowdy groups of tanned boys he always sees piling into their jeeps with loud music blasting at the end of an afternoon. Jaebum is probably somewhere in between. He still has a boyish kind of energy about him but when he's with Jinyoung, they gravitate towards the quiet open spaces. He closes the notebook and sets it beside him, making a note to send the letter in the morning. He picks up his diary and flips open to the latest entry. He'd been writing about the house last, although some of it trails off at the end due to his sleepiness at the end of the night. He doesn't remember what he'd been trying to get across. He turns the page.

 

_Week 2, day ?_

_Feeling calm but not content. Can't get rid of the feeling that something is missing but oddly enough I'm not sad about it...yet. Jaebum would like it here. I should stop hiding away from the family but when we're in the same room I'm not sure what to say. It's funny how you can be related to people by the blood in your veins yet feel like a stranger around them. I read once intimate bonds are formed through memory. My only memory of Uncle is him taking me shopping as a small child. I should create new memories, I suppose, if I ever wish to be close...though I'm not sure if close is what I want._

 

He pauses, looking at his own writing and wondering how he could say things to himself and yet still feel surprised by the truth of them.

But it's at this point that he hears jingling, footsteps quickly approaching, and he barely has enough time to shut his diary before he's being greeted by a giant mound of golden fur, the wet snout of what could only be some kind of very large overexcited dog -

"Harley! _Harley_ cut it out," he hears a boy's voice and the dog - Harley - moves away with reluctance. Jinyoung sits up, body tense as she tries to reach forward again to sniff him. He knows she's friendly, even if overexcited, wanting a new playmate but he also feels adequately ruffled having never been quite at ease with dogs.

"I'm so sorry," the boy is saying. He's younger than Jinyoung, barely strong enough to hold back Harley. "She really loves people but she doesn't know how to control herself."

"That's all right," Jinyoung says, picking up his diary from the sand where he'd dropped it from the startle. "It's okay," he says, feeling strangely embarrassed for not knowing how to handle it. Someone else probably would have greeted Harley right back. He likes the openly thrilled way she hops toward him and tentatively reaches his hand forward. She sniffs around it but moves forward too fast again and tries to put her paws up on his legs. Unsure, he instinctively moves back and feels even more stupid. He stands straight, laughing self-deprecatingly at himself.

"Harley, calm down!" The boy scolds but with an underlying love for the dog in his voice. He looks up at Jinyoung and rolls his eyes. Harley stops pulling so much and instead sniffs around Jinyoung's feet toward the empty bag of peanuts he'd been keeping from flying away by placing his novel on top.

"Joey!" He hears another, deeper voice call from a distance. The boy with the dog turns but Harley is undeterred. The voice belongs to an older boy, jogging down from the boardwalk, bare feet kicking up sand behind him. He's holding two ice cream cones and avoiding the dips and curves in the sand as he heads over to them.

"That's my brother, Mark," Joey says to Jinyoung and Jinyoung begins gathering his things, unsure why he's now being included in whatever little adventure this pair of brothers is on. He'd been planning to stay on the beach a little longer, watch the sunset, but feels like he's been knocked out of place a little. Mark approaches with his ice cream, one dripping down his knuckles. He hands the one still in tact to Joey and licks his knuckles as Joey motions to Harley.

"She got too excited again," he explains to his brother.

"Harleyyyy" Mark drawls and giggles like an actual child before looking at Jinyoung, "Sorry, she loves new people a little too much, we're trying to get her not to just tackle them."

Jinyoung can only think of exactly how opposite he is from Harley. "It's all right," he says, putting his books and notebooks in his bag.

"I hope she didn't ruin your things," Mark says, watching Jinyoung with a kind of curiosity.

"No no, just a little sand. Nothing to worry about," Jinyoung says. He picks up his flip flops, trying to make his escape. "I'm - my family's expecting me," he says awkwardly, feeling a little annoyed with himself over his apparent need to find excuses to go considering these people are perfect strangers.

"Oh sorry!" Joey says, ice cream on his chin.

"Yeah dude," Mark says, giggling again at nothing in particular, "Didn't mean to hold you up. You from here?"

"No..." Jinyoung frowns a little, wondering why Mark is asking when he's obviously trying to go.

"You staying for a while though? Cause if you are you should totally come up and we'll get a smoothie for you on us to make up for it."

"Come up where?" Why he asks he's not sure, Jinyoung already knows he has zero plans to meet with these kids again.

"Our friends own the smoothie shack up that hill," Joey says, pointing up the hill to some space presumably behind the palm trees.

"Yeah, Ice King," Mark says. "Seriously, we'll get you a smoothie, no big deal. It's on Harley."

"Yeah, on Harley," Joey says, giggling at his brother's words in the same childish way although it makes more sense on Joey, whose voice has yet to fully break.

"Okay," Jinyoung says, heading back the way toward the road he came from. "I will, nice meeting you."

"Nice meeting you!" Mark shouts, "See you soon!"

Unlikely, Jinyoung thinks, not bitterly. They're nice kids. It's just it's not his thing. Not the smoothie part, the meeting and the hanging out part. If Jaebum were here maybe. If Jaebum were here they might even spend some time hanging out with Harley on the beach and getting to know each other. But he's not, and Jinyoung can't get away fast enough, hoping to find somewhere to have some peace and quiet again.

  
\--


	2. So Tell Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jinyoung gets his smoothie.

What Jinyoung wants is peace and quiet but what he gets is hard labor. 

When he wakes up, he’s planning for another day of maybe taking a walk, finding a local library or cafe he can read in, or maybe some sort of local museum or art house. Jinyoung isn’t one to lie around for long so even though he has to work hard to actually be properly lazy, he still wasn’t planning on doing anything around the realm of Actual Obligations.

But when he gets up and heads to the kitchen for his morning oversized glass of orange juice, his uncle is just coming in, tracking mud all in the kitchen, work gloves tucked in his back pocket.

“Jinyoung!” he says in that surprised way he’s been doing, as if he keeps forgetting Jinyoung is supposed to be living with him for the next twelve weeks.

“Good morning, uncle,” Jinyoung says, wishing he’d at least bothered to shower or brush his hair. He figures his uncle probably isn’t too bothered about it but that familial ease is missing where Jinyoung feels free to be unapologetically gross in this house. His uncle is nice and has been welcoming but regardless, Jinyoung feels like he has to be polite and the hole-y shirt he’s wearing and his bare feet probably...are not.

His uncle mills about in the kitchen and Jinyoung drinks his juice, trying to think of something to say. He remembers liking his uncle a lot as a kid but it’s easy to like people as a kid. As an adult, he’s unsure of how to relate to this man.

“How’s your father doing?” Jeun asks, rinsing his hands rather aggressively in the sink.His hair is cut short and neat and Jinyoung can see beads of sweat on his forehead, the skin a little red from being outside apparently without a hat.

“He’s well,” Jinyoung says. He clears his throat. “Were you working out in the yard?”

Jeun turns off the faucet and wipes his hands on the towel. Jinyoung notes their roughness, different from his father’s delicate hands, different from his own. 

“I am,” Jeun pauses as he meticulously returns the rag where he pulled it from, “You busy doing anything now? You could help if you’d like.”

“Sure,” Jinyoung agrees and sure, he finds himself beside Jeun out in the sun, pulling up weeds around the tomatoes out in the yard, trying to act as though he’s not absolutely dying from the physical work. He’s been slacking on working out for something like a year now - enough time that it can’t really be called slacking anymore and more like, just simply not working out at all - and having to use his muscles like this is definitely wearing him out embarrassingly fast. They work in silence for most of the time until Jinyoung asks about the garden and Jeun spends an impressive amount of time talking about his vision for the layout - an added pathway through the middle, some new comfier chairs, some figurines he’s had stacked in the shed for a while.

“Oh - you - you probably don’t want to hear any of this, do you?” Jeun laughs at himself, shaking his head as he wipes sweat from his forehead. “Anyway. Jinyoung. How was your day at the beach the other day? Anything interesting happen?”

“Nothing much, just relaxed,” Jinyoung says in the way he would usually answer his father - short and vague. But then he remembers, he’ll be living here for twelve more weeks. He’s got to try a little harder. “I uh, I did meet some locals I guess.”

“No kidding, who?” Jeun probes.

“Brothers. Mark and Joey, they said.”

“Oh really, the Tuans?”

“I’m not sure,” Jinyoung says, caught off guard by the fact that Jeun seems to recognize these names, “I didn’t get their last names.”

“They have a dog with ‘em? Big ole fluffy overexcited thing?”

“I… Yeah.”

“Oh that’s great,” Jeun says and Jinyoung nods, perplexed that he might have just caught his own self in an unintended lie, “I used to work with their father, Raymond, great guy. Great, great guy. Kind of a crackpot, but a great guy -- sweet kids. How come you’re not hanging out with them today then?”

“Well they, uh, I mean we only met briefly.”

“Yeah they’re usually all at that smoothie spot, Ice King. You should check it out. I always see young people hanging out around there.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Jinyoung says, eyes drifting back to the yet to ripen tomatoes on the vine. Doesn’t quite sound like a place he’d be frequenting.

He sees Jeun’s eyes shift over to him. “No really, it’s a nice spot. I’m sure you could find some friends there, it might be good for you...probably better than working out here in this garden with your old uncle. I can finish this up by myself. And hey - maybe you can bring me back a smoothie actually? Something with blueberries in it.”

\--

Jinyoung is surprised Mark even remembers him.

“Dude from the beach, right?” Mark says, backing up and looking at Jinyoung with curiosity. He’s subdued somehow in this place, has less of that hum of a giggle underneath every one of his words. “What’s your name again?”

“Ah - Jinyoung,” Jinyoung says, reaching out his hand for Mark to shake and immediately feeling like it was a weird choice. He tries to relax  himself more, reminding himself that Mark’s just some boy, that  _ he’s _ just some boy, there’s no need for formalities.

“Jinyoung right,” Mark says, a small smile appearing on his face as they shake. His hands are even softer than Jinyoung’s, fingers slender but firm like everything else about him. “Nice seeing you again. You just hanging out?”

“Uh yeah, you know,” Jinyoung holds up his notebook.

“Cool. Are you like...a writer? Sometimes people come through here to get inspiration for whatever novels they’re working on. Or so they say.”

“I’m not a writer,” Jinyoung says, shaking his head at even the suggestion. Even the words sound awkward coming from his lips, the thought gives him an image of himself that feels like an ill fitting costume. He didn’t think Mark would ask. He’s not sure Mark even cares, is this small talk or are they actually getting to know each other? He thinks of his uncle - sweet kids...maybe you’ll make friends, it’ll be good for you  - Mark does seem sweet, maybe, Jinyoung concludes. He probably isn’t all that interested in the details. “I write but I’m not a writer. It’s just some thoughts.”

Mark nods, “Sounds like something a writer would say.”

Jinyoung stumbles over a response, unsure how to respond to the teasing from someone he’s not close with. 

“I’m kidding, Jinyoung,” Mark says, gives him a boyish smile that slides through Jinyoung like sand through his fingers. “Have fun with your thoughts, shout if you need me.” Then he wanders back over behind the counter, heading into the back.

\--

Mark’s actually pretty quiet, compared to Jinyoung’s expectations. Jinyoung can see him without even turning to look, Mark’s figure reflected in the window next to him. Jinyoung pretends not to be paying attention to the way Mark’s friends orbit around him but Mark himself mostly just fades into the background. He’s sitting behind the counter, knees up, tapping away on his phone and bobbing his head along with the dreamy R&B song on, lips mouthing along with the hook:  _ and i know this world is so damn crazy but that don’t mean a thing _

Jinyoung’s own phone buzzes in his pocket. 

_ Where’s my letter? _ It says, from Jaebum.

_ On the way soon...forgot to send it out yesterday _

_ If you’re forcing us to send antiquated forms of communication at least do so in a timely manner :) _

_ yes dad :)  _

Jinyoung smiles as he types it out, knowing it'll annoy Jaebum in exactly the way he loves.

_ stop. go to the post office. _

_ will do. p.s. i like track 8, especially the "come back baby" part - is this your way of telling me you miss me already? _

_ false. however, that song is your theme, look up the lyrics when you get a chance. _

_ remind me later. tell grover i love her and i miss her boogers.  _ He's only just hit send when Jaebum sends another message, both popping up at the same time on the small screen.

_ jk btw i do miss you asshole. grover does too. she still can't say your name properly but i can read her mind. _

\--

“What’s good with blueberries in it?” Jinyoung asks, forced casual, sunglasses already on to protect himself from the vulnerability of communicating with other people - at least that’s how they seem to function when they aren’t protecting his eyes from the actual sun.

“Bluesberries,” Mark says, typing out something on his phone, hitting send, then looking up to meet Jinyoung's gaze.

“I…” Jinyoung is confused, “Blueberries?”

“Yeah. Something good with blueberries - a bluesberry smoothie, my dad’s specialty. Is it for you?”

“No, I’m good after the mango,” Jinyoung says, patting his stomach to indicate the hefty amount of liquid sugar already floating around in his stomach.

“Oh too bad,” Mark says, “I think you’d like it. It’s proven to cure the blues. Hence the name.”

Jinyoung blinks, unsure what to do with that. “It’s for my uncle. He actually uh..he said he knew your dad.”

“Everyone knows my dad,” Mark says with an unspoken eyeroll. Jinyoung’s unsure if it’s at his dad or at the audacity of Jinyoung to think he was somehow special. “Who’s your uncle?”

“Jeun Park.”

“ _ Really _ ,” Mark says.

“Is that a good really?”

“It’s a whatever really,” Mark says and that little giggle bubbles up out of him, like on the beach. “Your uncle’s super nice. I haven’t seen him in a while though. He used to make us pear preserves and come over and play Boggle.”

Jinyoung feels his eyebrows knit in utter confusion. The way Jeun had spoken of Mark’s family made it seem like they’d seen each other at a christmas party or two, not like they’d played family games together.

“Yeah I know,” Mark continues, shaking his head, like he’s remembering something funny that Jinyoung would have to have been there to get. “Mr. Park. A bluesberry for Mr. Park. Youngjae, bluesberry please!”

A voice from the back makes some sort of affirmative shout and Jinyoung hears cabinets creaking open and closed.

Jinyoung pulls out his wallet and hands a creased bill to Mark.

“Oh you’ll have to wait til Youngjae’s done. I can’t do the register.”

“Oh,” Jinyoung says.

“Yeah,” Mark says, smiling at the once again puzzled look on Jinyoung’s face. “I don’t work here actually. I just exist here.”

“Like a dead bug caught in our walls,” a boy says, coming out of the back, wiping icy blue liquid from around a styrofoam cup.

Mark actually smiles at this too, as if it was a compliment. The boy, Youngjae according to his nametag, hands Jinyoung his smoothie and takes his money then reinserts his headphones and heads back to the back.

“He loves me,” Mark says to Jinyoung, just as Jinyoung cuts in awkwardly --

“Where’s the nearest post office?”

“Same road, two blocks down. You leaving already?”

Jinyoung nods, feeling as though he’s already stayed and chatted longer than originally planned. “I have to get there before they close.”

“Okay Jinyoung,” Mark says, shrugging and hopping back up on his perch behind the counter. “Tell your uncle I said hi. And don’t be a stranger. You and your thoughts are official Ice King regulars now. Oh and by the way, don't think I forgot I still owe you a smoothie.”

Jinyoung nods, thanks him with a slight bow, still so knee-jerk formal. Mark doesn't seem to notice though, just waves his hand cordially then goes back to his phone.

When Jinyoung gets out into the sun he exhales a breath he wasn’t even aware he was holding in. Mark’s nice, is what he’s thinking. He’s nice.

He heads to the post office to send Jaebum’s letter. Same road, two blocks down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks again for reading and waiting for this update. wips are hard, yikes. i'm thankful for anyone who's following annnnnd i'll try to update soon. :)
> 
> also, songs referenced in this chapter are "sunny duet" by noname and "window seat" by erykah badu

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading, I know it's super short -- but as I said, I'm going to try hard to update this on a frequent basis so y'all won't be waiting too long but in the mean time please send me comments & feedback & good vibes for motivation! Much love!


End file.
